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Thursday, 4 May 2017

Day-to-Day Life - Home Education in Pictures

Often I am asked what a normal day is like for us. We have a fairly structured approach to home education, but this still leaves plenty of time for all kinds of fun.

In photos, here are some of the typical activities you might see in our day to day lives:

1) A Day Plan. The diary comes out at the beginning of the day as everyone likes to know how much we are hoping to get done. Ticking items off is very satisfying.

My Home Education Planning Diary

2) Book Work. This is my marking box at the end of a day's work - they manage to get plenty done, and this takes up the largest amount of time in any given day. This isn't all the work they do as some things just need looking over as they do them.

A Full Marking Box

3) Cuddling Pets. The hamster is out most of the day, keeping my eldest company while he works. The guinea pigs are outside at this time of year, but still receive plenty of cuddles.

My 11 Year Old with his Hamster

4) Cooking. Not every day - no one could manage that much cake - but baking is a very popular activity.

My 9 Year Old and a Cake He Made

Baking Fun

5) Board Games. The children often get board games out to play together. Even the 5 year old is remarkably competent and even beats her brothers at times. I've written here and here about some of our favourite games.

Ticket to Ride

6) Hands-on Learning. Usually this happens in science or history, where the curriculum has good ideas for activities (so I don't have to think of any!).

8) Multi-tasking. My recipe book stand often has a child's text book on so that I can teach and cook at the same time. With 4 children all working at the same time, I'm often needed all over the place at once. Sometimes I can deploy children to help each other for a while, or arrange the work so that I can help one at a time, but often it is an opportunity for children to learn patience.

Ironing and Teaching Spelling

9) Day Trips. Again, not every day or every week, but we often make trips to museums or other places of interest as an important supplement to our learning. We make the most of being able to make visits during term time when places are often a little quieter.

British Museum Trip

10) Books. We all love to read - which is a real delight to me. It is rare that we go anywhere without at least some children taking a book in readiness for a quiet moment. I also set a wide range of books for the children, and spend the first chunk of time after breakfast reading aloud. This is a very popular bit of the day.

Books at the Park

11) Outdoors. We aim to go for a walk daily. Sometimes this is just a trip to the local playground, sometimes a longer nature walk. Even when we are all a bit tired, it lifts us all a bit to get some fresh air.

A Walk in our Local Park

12) Bible. God's Word is at the heart of what we aim to do in our family - from morning devotions over breakfast to conversations in the park, from formal sessions during our home education day to Bible reading at bed time.